Assignment: Your group is required to construct a case study/research paper during the course of the semester. The primary purpose of the paper is to:
• Further understand the economic way of thinking and the accounting implications.
• Give you an incentive to think critically about course information.
• Apply economic principles and accounting principles to firms at microeconomic level in the U.S.
Goal: Construct a case study/research paper that examines a firm in the U.S. from a microeconomic standpoint and provide suggestions based on your findings.
• Step 1: Choose a firm for your focus. In addition to picking a firm that you find interesting, you may want to pick a firm that has available data (or a firm that for which you can personally provide data). Publicly traded companies file reports with a great deal of data (preferred). However, if you have a strong preference to examine a privately held firm or small family business, please feel free to do so.
• Step 2: You will need to complete an analysis of the following categories for your firm. We will discuss each of these in class, so you should complete the research for your firm after it is discussed in class so that we can discuss your findings in the following class. The following must be included: (NOTE: Be sure to break your paper into the following sections with headings):
o What does your firm do? Introduce your firm
o How have supply and demand conditions impacted the firm in recent years?
o Examine the costs of production for your firm.
o What is (are) your firm's primary competitive advantage(s)?
o Are there entry barriers for firms in this industry?
o What substitutes are available for your product?
o What is the market share for firms in the industry?
o What market structure best describes the conditions your firm faces?
• Step 3: Based on the characteristics of your firm, provide advice regarding what you think the firm should do going forward and provide a prediction of their future.